The former England fly-half Danny Cipriani's Melbourne Rebels career looks to be hanging by a thread after he was left out of the touring party for two Super 15 games in South Africa.

The 23-year-old was not considered for Friday's home defeat to the Queensland Reds after breaking a team agreement not to stay out late after the previous week's fixture against New South Wales.

The Rebels' scrum-half, Richard Kingi, who also missed the Reds game for the same breach of discipline, returned to the squad for the matches against the Bulls in Pretoria and Cheetahs in Bloemfontein over the next two weeks but there was no place for Cipriani.

"Following meetings yesterday between ... players, coaches and management, it has been decided that Danny Cipriani will not travel to South Africa," read a team statement. "Danny will train with the other non-touring players over the next two weeks and will continue his community engagement with local clubs and schools during this time."

The Rebels' first major signing for their inaugural season, Cipriani moved to Melbourne with the aim of revitalising his career after falling out of favour with the England coach, Martin Johnson.

It did not take long for him to attract the wrong sort of headlines in Melbourne, however, and he was fined a match fee in March after being asked to leave a nightclub for taking a bottle of vodka from behind the bar without paying.

He promised he would stand down for "an appropriate period of time" if he breached team disciplinary protocols again and did just that after staying out late after a defeat to the New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney on 30 April.

The Rebels have signed Kurtley Beale for next season and have also been linked with a move for his fellow Wallabies back James O'Connor.

Both can play at fly-half which has fuelled speculation that Cipriani might be on his way back to Europe at the end of the season, despite the former Wasps player saying he wanted to see out the remainder of his two-year deal.